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One way to convince policy makers that they won't be hurt if they support your proposal -- or even that they might be hurt if they do not support it -- is to show widespread support for the proposal from constituents. This is most important if your board is a political body, like a city council or a state legislature. There are two ways to show constituent support: by having people present at public events in support of the proposal, or by having people contact the members to say they support the proposal.
In most situations, you can't get a significant number of voters into a hearing room. Although more people can come to an outdoor rally, most of the time rally turnouts are not large enough to swing elections either. Nonetheless, getting supporters to come to both rallies and hearings is important.
Elected officials know that most people never go to hearings or rallies of any kind, and that those who do usually represent a small proportion of people who support something. They also know that people who come to hearings and rallies are often people who care enough to help people who support them and to remember people who do not. In addition, especially with hearings, having a significant number of supporters in the room can make it feel like the tide is going your way. If it feels like you are winning, some board members may drift your way.
One way to get people to rallies and hearings is to use the usual techniques for communicating with the LGBT community. Put notices of the event in the LGBT press, and try to get stories about how important a good turnout will be. Send notices to the "alternative" press as well. If local papers, radio stations, or websites have "community calendars" or other listings of upcoming events, get the notices to them as well.
Print flyers or posters and distribute them to LGBT and gay-friendly businesses. Identify LGBT or politically supportive neighborhoods, and put your flyers on bulletin boards, etc. Check to see if there are local laws about where you can post flyers. For example, some places forbid posting on utility poles, and others allow it. If you have enough people, shove copies under people's doors. Find out if local colleges and universities have LGBT student groups. Make sure to send them event notices.
An email notice can be especially effective. Ask supporters to send the email out to their friends, contacts, and list-serves. You can also ask LGBT and supportive organizations if you can have membership lists with email addresses and/or phone numbers. If you have lists of phone numbers, find a friendly organization or business with multiple lines and have volunteers call.
A sophisticated move is to put together a document listing all the organizations, both inside and outside the LGBT community, which either support your proposal or are at least somewhat sympathetic. Find out if each organization has regular meetings or a newsletter, website, email list, etc., who is in charge of each and how one gets on meeting agendas or places announcements. Find out what the access and scheduling deadlines are. Put everything in your document. As soon as you know the date for a hearing or rally, try to get announcements in as many places as you can, and speakers to as many meetings as you can. If you can't get listed, or get to a meeting, at least call some of the organization's leaders. Ask them to come and bring a few supporters.
If you have an LGBT neighborhood or a politically supportive neighborhood, set up information tables at busy corners. If you are feeling bolder, do a small march through the neighborhood at a time when it is likely to be crowded and pass out leaflets as you go. Ask the owners of gay bars and restaurants to stop the music and let someone from the organization stand up and briefly explain the upcoming event and why people need to go. Be short, and be sure to give the time and place.
If you want people to come to an event, do your best to schedule it at a time when that will be easy for as many people as possible. Saturday can be a good day for rallies since many people have it off; there won't be many people at City Hall, but it is a slow news day so coverage is often good. If you want to do a rally on a weekday, noon is usually the best time. You can often convince boards to hold hearings at night so people who work can come.
If you are turning people out for a hearing, and there is a possibility of public testimony at a hearing, try to prepare people who might come.
Nothing usually impresses board members more than contact from constituents. Putting aside personal lobbying visits, the best kind of contact is an individually written note, followed in rough order by notes with "canned text" (messages made up by a campaign organization), phone calls, emails, signed preprinted cards and petitions.
Individual notes are most impressive partly because they are the hardest thing to get people to do. That, of course, is the problem with them. Most organizers think that the resistance to writing is so great, and that so few people follow up and make phone calls or email, that preprinted cards are the best choice. Petitions, though they are not much different than preprinted cards, seem not to impress board members as much as cards do.
You can use all of the devices described in the last section for getting people to come to meetings to get people to make contact. If you use flyers or ads in papers, you can include a suggested text or a note for people to send in, and that may help overcome some resistance. You will get many more people to act if you make personal contact and have something for them to sign when you ask. You can do this door to door, but the most effective tactic is probably to set up tables at fairs, at public events, on busy street corners and at shopping centers. Have preprinted cards ready for people to sign.
Some campaigns have been successful with blank cards which people personalize at booths, etc. Since these are still obviously part of an orchestrated effort, they may not have much advantage over the easier preprinted card. More non-LGBT supporters may sign if you have a card which explicitly identifies the writer as a straight supporter of LGBT rights.
The chance that the card will actually get mailed will go up if you have postage ready and you handle the mailing. Usually, people will contribute the cost of the postage if you ask.
If you handle the mailing, you may want to keep the cards undated, and hold them until the best strategic moment. You may want to send in the cards from one District if a member tells you he doesn't have any constituents who care about the issues. Some organizers like to send the cards in near the final vote.
The toughest problem with constituent contact campaigns is that most people don't know who their representatives are. If the representatives are chosen "at large" (i.e., if all members on a city council represent the whole city), any constituent can contact any member. Under the more typical district systems, you need to be able to tell people who represents them. You can either get a map or directory from the city which will tell you this, find one online, or put one together. If you use flyers, print the map on them. If you set up tables, have a map or directory at the table so that the cards can be correctly addressed.
One effective way to get people in contact with Board members is to hold "lobbying days" in which you get as many people as you can to come to members' offices and meet with them. You should have everyone who is coming meet together at the start for a basic training in lobbying techniques.
Lobbying days tend to work best on boards which provide offices for their members in one or two buildings. Before you schedule a lobbying day, make sure you pick a date when most Board members, particularly those who need persuading or hand-holding, will be available to meet. Your campaign organization should make appointments for groups of constituents with each member. If you are reasonably sure you will have too many people for one appointment, make two. It is better to have a few too many people in a meeting than it is to have too few. Nothing is worse than a constituent meeting for which no one shows up.
When you can make it all work, the best way to organize a lobby day is to pick a day when most members will be available, get commitments from people who are willing to come, and then schedule the appointments, always making each visiting group a tad larger than is comfortable for the office. Make sure to book groups in to see other influential city officials like mayors, city managers, city attorneys, etc.
>> Next: 19. Protests and Civil Disobedience
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